Late wickets dent Ireland hopes against Bangladesh

First Test, Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (day one of five)

Ireland 270-8: Stirling 60; Miraz 3-50

Bangladesh: yet to bat

Ireland won the toss

Half-centuries from Paul Stirling and debutant Cade Carmichael helped Ireland make a steady start on day one of their opening Test in Bangladesh, but four third-session wickets saw momentum swing back to the hosts.

Aided by a quintet of drops in the field, Ireland were 270-8 at the close of play with white-ball captain Stirling leading the way on 60.

In their first Test match since beating Zimbabwe in February, and first since the retirement of opening batter PJ Moor, Ireland made the worst possible start with captain Andrew Balbirnie out for a four-ball duck.

That brought Carmichael to the crease for his red-ball debut, with the right-hander combining with Stirling to forge Ireland's highest second-wicket partnership in Test cricket.

Dropped twice on 10, Stirling, who in Moor's absence opened the batting for just a second time in his Test career, contributed nine fours from 76 balls before being caught at second slip off the bowling of Nahid Rana.

The 96-run partnership with Carmichael was a real boon to head coach Henrich Malan given his side's top-order struggles in Test cricket, although Harry Tector then managed only a solitary run from number four.

After tea, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher appeared to be settling into a nice rhythm before the latter became Hasan Murad's first Test wicket, caught at first slip by captain Najmul Hossain Shanto on 44.

Tucker was stumped by Litton Das on 41 soon after, before the same fate befell Andy McBrine for just five.

On what was a back-and-forth first day, Ireland looked to have steadied the ship once more with a 48-run partnership between debutant Jordan Neill and Barry McCarthy across the final hour of play.

But, from the last delivery of the day, Taijul Islam had Ireland's second debutant Neill lbw for 30.